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Your Church is under Attack!!!
American Center for Law and Justice ^ | April 22, 2006 | Jay Sekulow

Posted on 04/22/2006 9:05:45 AM PDT by AmericaOne

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To: highlander_UW
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but there is no constitutional provision to provide any group of any sort tax exempt status. That churches have been afforded such status for a long period of time does not make it wise to accept it if it gets in the way of being a city set on a hill.

It is very much implied in the first Amendment. The power to tax is the power to regulate and destroy. By taxing Churches the government most definitely is effecting the establishment of religion. Tax exempt status for Churches goes all the way back to the Roman era and continued up until know. It was Lyndon Johnson who put the hook in and now the ACLU that is trying to reel it in. Once churches lose the tax exempt status their existant is completely in the hands of the government.

21 posted on 04/22/2006 7:55:50 PM PDT by Always Right
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To: Spirited
That is what Gene Scott did and he is highly disregarded here. He was smarter than all his critics bound together.

I've never heard of Gene Scott, so I did a google search on him and discovered his own webpage. On the front page of his website it states he talks about Atlantis and the pyramids. Without reading further I suspect any disrespect he receives has nothing to do with his church's tax status and more to do with a conspiracy theory bent. But that is based upon very little examination of both his teachings or the criticisms at this board.

22 posted on 04/22/2006 8:32:01 PM PDT by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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To: Always Right
It is very much implied in the first Amendment. The power to tax is the power to regulate and destroy. By taxing Churches the government most definitely is effecting the establishment of religion. Tax exempt status for Churches goes all the way back to the Roman era and continued up until know. It was Lyndon Johnson who put the hook in and now the ACLU that is trying to reel it in. Once churches lose the tax exempt status their existant is completely in the hands of the government.

Hummm....well, I think you have a valid point regarding an implied exemption in the First amendment, although clearly not everyone will agree. As far as what is historical dating back to Rome, if we're to be consistent with complaints regarding the Supreme Court looking to Europe for precedents, it would be equally wrong to look to Rome or any subsequent events external to the US for reason to apply a tax exempt status to Churches. I believe you are correct regarding LBJ being the initial culprit in setting the groundwork to undermine the current status, however I disagree that the churches will be under the control of the government were they to lose their tax exempt status. It seems to me that the most commonly used power to control the church has been the threat of losing their tax exempt status...if they renounce or lose it then that control is no longer in place and they would be free to speak truth to the nation. Of course the ACLU would seek other avenues to silence the Church, but they would have lost their current weapon.

23 posted on 04/22/2006 8:40:33 PM PDT by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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To: highlander_UW
This seems to be a move by the Democrats to silence the religious right. They seem to forget all the speeches made from the pulpits of black churches. Jesse Jackson, Sharpton and Bill Clinton do a lot political campaigning from the pulpit. The sword cuts both ways. If not, there is a dirt simple cause to bring action under the equal protection clause.
24 posted on 04/22/2006 8:46:58 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Myrddin
You are 100% correct...the democrats are royal hypocrites. What they fail to grasp is that if they try to control the churches too much they are going to begin renouncing their tax exempt status and begin to speak out AGAINST them. And it won't take all of the churches to do so. Picture the outcry that'll occur if even 10% of churches renounce their tax exempt status and those 10% of all pastors begin to speak out against the evil in our society...much of it the party platform of the democrat party. Before too long the democrats will be begging churches to take up the tax exempt status in an effort to shut them up...can you picture the backpedaling the ACLU would have to do at the beck and call of their democrat masters?
25 posted on 04/22/2006 8:53:51 PM PDT by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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To: highlander_UW
it would be equally wrong to look to Rome or any subsequent events external to the US for reason to apply a tax exempt status to Churches.

Just look at the US then. Look at all 50 states and see that all of them exempt churches from taxes including property tax. The US federal government has never taxed churches, but they are now using this registration issue to silence churches.

26 posted on 04/23/2006 6:14:03 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: Always Right
I do agree with you that the government is seeking to control churches. The democrats see the religious right as the backbone of the republican party and in their drive for power they'll do anything they can to hinder or break that backbone as they perceive it. If that means they attack Christianity they have no qualms about it.

My point is simply that the churches are already muzzled by submitting to the tax laws, even though the democrats are again hypocrites on this and regularly speak from pulpits of liberal churches. The problem for the Right is that to stop the democrats from doing so would be opening up an avenue of attack on all churches and not just the ones the hypocrite democrats are abusing. The democrats are money driven (they serve mammon)...they can not conceive in their wildest nightmares that churches would give up a tax exemption in order to speak out on the issues of the day and to denounce the democrats for their hypocrisy. As I mentioned earlier, if even 10% of conservative churches did so and began to speak forth on issues such a abortion, poverty, taxes and of course the gospel it might shock the nation. If I knew of a solid church that renouced their tax exempt status to free the pulpit from government control I'd attend there.

27 posted on 04/23/2006 8:31:19 AM PDT by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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To: highlander_UW
If I knew of a solid church that renouced their tax exempt status to free the pulpit from government control I'd attend there.

Well there are quite a few churches that elect not to apply for 501c3 status. Oddly, if you read the law and IRS publications, they make it fairly clear that churches are considered tax-exempt even without applying. Most churches apply for tax-exempt status because they think they must.

28 posted on 04/23/2006 8:38:13 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: Always Right
Well there are quite a few churches that elect not to apply for 501c3 status. Oddly, if you read the law and IRS publications, they make it fairly clear that churches are considered tax-exempt even without applying. Most churches apply for tax-exempt status because they think they must.

More of them should make their freedom from the IRS muzzle known. As for the tax-exempt thing in the code, I wasn't aware of that.

29 posted on 04/23/2006 8:44:05 AM PDT by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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